All know of the Caprion Empire. It is a testament to what man and his allies are capable of. What started long ago as a small spark of military might in the verdant plains of the southern shorelines has erupted into a raging wildfire of conquest and domination. In the span of less than 500 years the Caprion Empire has expanded ever farther into the continent and across the great sea.

In the lands to the far north live men and woman of such savagery and such strength that the sun itself weakens in power before them. This is a land choked by frost, where every pine tree streaking towards the clouds does so purely in defiance. Every beast must grow stronger, larger, and more ferocious should it have any hope of survival. This land is called SvellHugr or Rimehart in the imperial tongue. It is a land old in tradition, and rich in natural resources; resources that the Empire is desperate to lay claim to.

The native humes are called the ássungr, and are divided into several large and ancient tribes called ætts. Other indigenous races of Rimehart include the warring clans of dwarves who dwell deep underground and in the mountains. Minotaurs with great shaggy manes of fur maintain a powerful citadel in the north eastern foothills. Nomadic Gnolls both powerful and vicious patrol the grasslands of the southern plains. The swamps and marshes are home to the warm-blooded herklæði, humanoid descendants of the great dragons. The largest forest in the region is home to the Court of Winter Twilight, where Eladrin, wood elves, and other Fae hold court morally ambiguous to the concerns of the other lesser races and the outside world.

In the center of the Rimehart region lays the imperial trade city of Frostburg. Located on the regions only coastal inlet and connected to the southern regions of the continent by the Mistalin River the Empire keeps the city well provisioned, and well protected. Only the bravest, or most fool hardy volunteer for terms of duty in Frostburg, and only the most savvy or desperate merchants attempt to do trade in the region. It’s not that the races of the Empire are hated or shunned by the indigenous people, but the Empire represents something troubling to the natives, something they may yet come to fear: change.

Quick summary:

Rimehart is a mature game setting with a heavy lean towards graphic violence, sex, and gore. It is a realm of Vikings and berserkers, of deadly sword maidens, and tremendous earth shaking monsters. Due to the richness of natural resources, and the powerful warring factions all clamoring for control of them, even the slightest acts can spark conflict or even outright war.

Regional races benefit from being a part of the campaign setting from birth, having ties to the land and its people.

Imperial Races include everything else. They benefit from being strangers in a strange land where a new marvel await around every corner.

Setting:

Take Conan the barbarian and set the whole thing in Skyrim. Simmer with some of the political intrigue and faction warring from game of thrones. Add loads of monsters and crazy magic. You are almost there.

Gameplay mechanics:

Honor System: Every character has 3 to 5 values that define their existence. When you live your life true to those values, whatever they may be, you gain honor, if you do not live true to your values you lose honor. Honor is good and provides tangible rewards in the game. Loss of honor affects your character adversely and thus, is bad.

Scar System: Any character or villain reduced to 0 health receives a scar denoting their wound in battle. Scars are a sign of pride and sometimes of shame in the region of Rimehart. Any character struck by a critical hit has a chance of receiving a scar from that attack.

Adaptive storytelling: Despite the more structured and thus, more limiting gameplay of 4th edition the campaign story will be changed and shaped every week by the actions of the player characters. Nothing is set in stone.

In this episode, 2 new gameplay rules were introduced. The first was X-treme critical hits and fumbles. The X you see, makes it that much more extreme. Under this system, a critical is still a critical, however if you roll again to confirm, it becomes an X-tream critical hit. These often only further increase the damage being dealt, but they can also be quite nasty, and quite deadly. A critical fumble is triggered by a natural 1, followed by a second roll that would be a failure. A lot of extra rolling to be sure, but ultimately a lot more exciting and interesting for combat.

The second gameplay element introduced was the minor action. Taking a leaf out of the 4e tome, i assigned each member of the party a personalized minor action, to keep things interesting, and to alleviate guilt that i was mashing 4e and pathfinder monster stat blocks together.

The fighter now taunts, aka, marks as a 4e fighter would.

The ranger can “aim” at targets granting cumulative tokens (thank you iron heroes)

The monk can now shift 1 square as a minor action

The cleric can Bless another, granting a +1 to the next die roll of any one ally with 5 square burst, or +2 if the ally is adjacent.

and the summoner can grant his eidolon a +1 to attack or def for one round

I figure that 2 more minor actions can be added in, at levels 10 and 20 respectively, to further spice things up, in the meantime i feel that it give the low-level characters a little bit more to think about in combat than the standard move and hit, hit and move equation.